


Breaking point

by Servena



Category: The Tribe (TV)
Genre: Angst, Dark, Gen, The Mallrats - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 03:13:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8187353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Servena/pseuds/Servena
Summary: Amber can feel that the tribe is close to the breaking point.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Summerchallenge 2016

Amber can feel that the tribe is close to the breaking point.

Not breaking up, never that. Just breaking, each of them so close to the point where they can no longer go on. Some of them already past that and just not noticing it yet.

It’s too much. Too much loss. Too much pain. Stumbling from one desperate situation into another with barely a moment to catch their breaths.  It just keeps going on and on.

She can see it in Ellie’s haunted face, who barely speaks at all these days. In Trudy’s attempts to keep up morale becoming more desperate as the days go by. In Salene’s tears that only appear when she thinks the younger ones can’t hear her. In Chloe’s loud tantrums. In Lex’ clenched fists as he keeps going out of sheer stubbornness. She has always valued his way of not giving up even when things look utterly hopeless. She knows that when he finally breaks, he will break the hardest. She fears that there is no one left to put him back together again.

They’re clinging to each other like people drowning. Tribe members who were barely on speaking terms before seek comfort in one another. At least half of the tribe is missing. She knows that some of them are never coming back.

The single time she allows herself to cry, Trudy finds her. She doesn’t say anything, just holds her as she sobs “I can’t, I can’t do this, I don’t know how.”

When she joins the circle for the first time after the invasion, she can’t help but think back to better times. How few they have become. How many have been lost on the way towards this point.

No Tai-San for spiritual advice. No Jack with his spiky red hair and awkward grin. No Alice, who always knew what to say. No May with her big mouth. No Ryan with his gentle smile.

No Bray who could hold her and tell her everything was going to be alright.

She can feel Trudy on her left grabbing her hand tighter. On her right is Lex, jaw tight, staring into nothing. For a moment everyone is silent.

To her surprise it is Salene who takes on Tai-San’s role and says something. “Tai-San once said ‘Each time our group is fragmented, our harmony grows stronger’.”

“Yeah, that’s something she would say”, Lex mumbles.

“I didn’t really understand it back then. But I think I do now.” Salene lets her gaze sweep over the faces in the circle. “Since the Mall Rats were founded, we have overcome so much hardship. The Locos. Tribe Circus. The Chosen.”

“We didn’t exactly overcome the Locos”, Lex points out.

“Lex!” Trudy chides.

“All I’m saying is this isn’t new”, Salene continues. “We have done this before. We have freed the city from dictatorship before, against unbelievable odds. And I think we can do it again.”

Amber realizes with surprise that she is smiling. Good old Salene. How far she has come since the first days. How far they’ve all come. “I think Salene is right”, she finds herself saying.

“But how?” Trudy asks. “They’re watching our every move. And there’s so many of them!”

“And so few of us”, Chloe says quietly.

When Ellie speaks, everyone turns to her in surprise. “I’m not giving up Jack”, she says with a small shaky voice. “Or my sister. I can’t.”

“Or Tai-San”, Lex says stubbornly.

“Nobody is giving up”, Amber says firmly, trying to kindle this little ember of hope before it dies down.

“So now what?” Lex asks.

“We wait. We obey the rules and pretend we’ve given up. We look as hopeless and miserable as possible.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard”, Trudy mumbles.

“And while we wait, we plan. So that when the Technos forget about us, just for a moment, we are ready.”

There aren’t any loud cheers when her speech is finished. But there are some smiles, and some faces look a bit more hopeful than before.

It is enough, Amber decides. It has to be.


End file.
